OB, September 29th

1. Talk by CEO of Edinburgh Airport, discussion of operational challenges faced by airport
1. discussion of preserving quality when 500 or 5000 employees actually work for you.  The others are contractors, and their quality of service affects your customers.
2. M. Belbin's 9 "team roles" (1996) (From Henley Management College)
1. core roles must be filled for a group to be effective
2. Eddie Cochran's talk:  Problems with teamworking
3. Belbin creating assortments of teams (What was Belbin's background?)
1. Alpha Team- intelligence
2. How was the group performance measured?
3. Perhaps there are other identifiable factors that lead to group success
4. Situationally dependent roles, all roles of equal value
5. takes pressure off of us, because all roles are important
6. Roles:
1. Shaper
2. Coordinate
3. Plant- ideation
4. Resource investigation (what is the difference between this and a coordinator?)
5. Team Work- build cohesion
6. Monitor evaluator- detail oriented
7. implementer- hard worker (Boxer in Animal Farm)
8. completer finisher- follows through
9. specialist- technical expert
7. Self-Perception Inventory (SPI)  https://e-belbin.com/Inter-extranet
1. Login, Password provided in lecture (email Eddie for details)
8.  Autokinetic effect- Sherif
1. put in dark room, light spot perceived to be moving
2. issue for pilots
3. differences between individuals
4. tendency to converge on a common answer (to question to how much perceived motion was observed)
5. jokes as an indicator of when norms are broken
9. Shibutani- reference group:  Group from which we define our identity
1. a group whose norms we act out
2. deviants are those without reference groups represented in the current group
10. Symbols play a large part in group identity
1. company cars- make and cost
2. alpha male vs alpha female issue:  (research conducted?)
3. match communications structure to the task
11. "telephone game "
1. information quality control
2. memorable vs important
3. UBS example during financial crisis (Omar)
4. ATC code - brevity and clarity, standard coding structure, involves a confirmation step
5. wheel structure (hub in the center)
6. pass it on structure (serial path for information)  one break in the chain lead to loss of information
7. all to all structure, face to face (every member has point to point connectivity)
1. very time consuming
2. difficult to determine shared meaning
3. initially its important to get the face to face meeting
4. too much shared meaning (Tom) "group think"  extreme consensus and complacency
1. (standardization of terminology critical)
5. two 747 collided on a runway- KLM and Panam
6. Case studies about highly mission critical businesses which have a "stop the line" feature for rapid response.  How is it implemented?
8. Group Development
1. forming
2. storming
3. norming
4. performing
5. adjourning
9. Issues:
1. Group: size, members, developmental stage
2. Task: relevant, clarity, set performance criteria
3. Environment:  location, leader with influence, sub groupings, other groups
10. Procedures and Processes-> Outcomes
11. Impact of Education:
1. do any companies educate their employees about this stuff?  (Dave)
12. References for high performance, "stop the line" companies
1. Taka Fujimoto- TPS related
2. Carl Weick-
13. F1 Example:  
1. check lists
2. Clarity of roles, homogenizing teams
3. intergroup communication
4. trust
5. time constraints
6. importance of scientific method
7. "open leadership" vs authoritarian
8. winning over people's lives? (safety also important)
9. having a plan B
10. applications to medicine (ICU), checklists
11. interdependence of activities (similar to construction, problems of sub-contractor communication)
12. importance of repetition-
13. in many ways F1 is an idealized case
1. budget limitations in recent years- FIAA set limits on team budgets
2. complexity of printing at the Business School- trace steps
3. complexity of booking rooms at the Business School- write proposal
4. bbc iplayer-  chance to see F1 races (free to watch streaming online)
14. leadership
14. Decision Making
1. J.G. March
2. lateral vs. vertical decision making
3. Dearborn and Simon:  executive problem solving
4. Rational Models:  Systematically connect outcomes to behaviors
1. objectives, outcomes
2. methods of achieving outcomes
3. utilitarian
4. identity related decision-  what kind of person am I.  What kind of an outcome would be achieved through this endeavor
5. "its just not me"- not a good match with my image of myself
6. impact of emotions based decisions- (Sometimes cognitive functions are unconscious and emotions connect here?)
7. Idea of Open Courseware at UEBS
8. Start with reality gap:  
1. where are we now
2. where do we want to be?
3. from the beginning:
4.  define the problem correctly
5. (how to balance the "get it done" attitude with creative side?)
9. Objective= desired outcome (that you would like to achieve)
10. Constraint= condition that must not be violated (why outside your control?)
11. organizational structure based on objectives
12. fundamental to the organization ("needle of the compass that allows you to set a course")
13. for multiple objectives, danger of losing focus,danger or too many requirements, overstretch
1. must prioritize
2. establish weighing factors
3. University of Edinburgh's fear of duplication:  Begin with consultation exercise.  Too many requirements, behind schedule, cost overruns
4. Edinburgh Tram situation- 
14. Trip from EDI to Glasgow- what constraints?
1. min cost
2. min time
3. max safety
4. max passenger comfort
15. Brainstorming  divergent (Debonan's terminology)
1. arrange criteria on the vertical
2. arrange methods of achieving on horizontal
3. KPI=key performance indicators
4. estimate= basic modeling=using knowledge about historical data in order to extrapolate about the future
5. Criticisms of Rational Model:  
1. biased towards data that you have
2. removes ability of "Gut feel"
6. Alternatives to the rational model:
1. Herbert Simon "bounded rationality"
2. "good enough" solutions
3. suggestion for FT cost issue:  blogging as a cheaper alternative
4. search (for alternatives) cost- decreasing (almost costless!)
5. slack=unexploited opportunities
6. Rules and obligations (values based, but how to determine and unify values across groups)
7. Garbage Can Model-  goals and decisions are not always clear-cut and the group of decision makers is fluid (fluid participation)
1. being persistent
2. contentious issues last (tactically better because at the beginning of meetings, people are less likely to notice!)
3. "gambler's fallacy"- must continue risking "because you've already bet so much!" locks people into courses of action (Vietnam War?)